Dealing With Errors – Oosthuizen’s Red Spot

A few weeks ago I was umpiring a junior cricket match when a young leg spinner came on to bowl. His first ball pitched in line with middle stump and turned so much that I had to think about whether I should call it a wide. At last, I thought, an English Shane Warne in the making.

Unfortunately, although he continued to turn the ball, whenever he bowled a bad ball, or even if the batsman managed to hit away quite a good ball, the bowler got increasingly down on himself. Although he wasn’t intended to be taken literally, by towards the end of his spell he was making comments such as “I think I should go home” and “I should give up cricket”. Whereas the best spin bowlers, like Warne, are able to put pressure on the batsman, luring him into a mistake even if the pitch isn’t helping him too much, this bowler was putting all the pressure on himself.

Although it’s easy to be critical, many of us do similar things when we perform badly at sport, getting increasingly cross with ourselves with each mistake. Golfers, in particular, are prone to letting one momentary lapse of concentration, or even an unlucky bounce, ruin an excellent round as their game collapses because their brain is constantly reliving the past, and they get more and more tense.

Even Shane Warne would occasionally bowl a bad ball, but the best sportsmen are able to put a previous mistake out of their mind and concentrate on what they’re doing next. Some sportsmen actively “park” the past by wiping it away; for instance, wiping their hand on their clothing or on the ground.

In a sport where you have time to prepare yourself, such as golf, or bowling in cricket, or serving in tennis, a pre-shot routine is really useful; focus on the visual target(s), visualise what you want to achieve, and carry it out, giving no thought to what happened before, or the pressure of the situation. Some golfers make a clear beginning to the pre-shot routine, for instance saying “Now” or “Start” to themselves when they take their club out of the bag, or just before they start their practice swing.

And this is where I think Louis Oosthuizen’s red spot comes in. The open champion didn’t used to have a set routine in his build-up to playing shots, and had problems keeping his mind focused in major tournaments. Golf psychologist Karl Morris suggested that Oosthuizen mark a red dot on the thumb of his glove. He could then look down at the spot as a way of re-focusing on the next task. The result – maintaining his lead over the last two rounds and winning by seven strokes - was mightily impressive. Let’s hope our young leg spinner finds a way of doing something similar.